On The Court

Entering the 2015-16 season, Coach K owns a 1,018-310 record in 40 years of coaching, including a 945-251 mark in 35 seasons in Durham.

Krzyzewski’s victory total offers evidence of his success, but even more impressive are the five national championships. The fifth title came last season with a 68-63 win over Wisconsin in Indianapolis, marking the third time Duke has captured the crown in the city. In addition to the 2015 run to the title, Krzyzewski led Duke to NCAA championships in 1991, 1992, 2001 and 2010. Only two coaches since John Wooden have led their programs to back-to-back championships (Coach K and Billy Donovan) and Krzyzewski’s five titles are also second only to Wooden (10) in NCAA history.

In 2005-06, Krzyzewski passed Wooden to move into first on the chart of coaches who have led their respective schools to a No. 1 national ranking. Coach K has now led Duke to the top spot in the AP poll in an NCAA-record 16 seasons, including 11 times in the last 18 years. Under Krzyzewski, Duke has played far more games as a No. 1 ranked team (218) than it has as an unranked team (141). He has guided the Blue Devils to a 190-28 mark as the top-ranked team in the AP Poll.

Coach K and the Blue Devils have been a fixture on the national basketball scene with 20 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths from 1996-2015 and 31 in the past 32 years. Overall, he has taken his program to postseason play in 32 of his 35 years at Duke and is the winningest active coach in NCAA Tournament play with a stunning 88-26 record for a .772 winning percentage. On March 20, 2005, Krzyzewski surpassed Dean Smith’s career tournament win total of 65 with a 63-55 triumph over Mississippi State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

To top off an incredible year in 2001, after Duke won its third national championship, Krzyzewski was named to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class along with Temple’s John Chaney and former NBA star Moses Malone. The induction ceremony was held in Springfield, Mass., on October 5, 2001. In typical Coach K fashion, he was adamant in sharing the honor with those around him.

Numerous Honors

Although he has earned nearly every award imaginable, Krzyzewski was rewarded with the ultimate honor in basketball in 2001 when he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He entered the Hall of Fame with Temple coach John Chaney and former NBA star Moses Malone. Since that induction, Krzyzewski has also been inducted into the Army Sports Hall of Fame (Sept. 11, 2009), Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame (2010) and Duke Athletics Hall of Fame (2011).

Krzyzewski was honored in December of 2011 as Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated. He shared the SI cover with Tennessee coaching legend Pat Summitt.

TIME magazine and CNN named Krzyzewski “America’s Best Coach” in 2001 as part of a joint venture between the two media outlets. The criteria for the selection were not limited to any sport or any level of play.

In all, Coach K has been named the National Coach of the Year 12 times in eight different seasons by major organizations, including UPI and Chevrolet (1986), Naismith (1989), the NABC (1991), The Sporting News and Naismith (1992), Basketball Times (1997), the NABC and Naismith (1999), Chevrolet (2000) and the Victor Awards (2001). In 2004, he was named the Claire Bee Coach of the Year that honors the active Division I men’s basketball coach who has made the most significant positive contribution to his sport during the preceding year.

In 1992, The Sporting News named him the Sportsman of the Year, becoming the first college coach to win the honor. The magazine said, “On the court and off, Krzyzewski is a family man first, a teacher second, a basketball coach third, and a winner at all three. He is what’s right about sports…”

Coach K has been voted the ACC Coach of the Year five times, most recently in 2000. His five ACC Coach of the Year awards are second all-time among the coaching giants of the league.

In 2005, Krzyzewski became the youngest recipient of the Distinguished Graduate Award at the United States Military Academy. He garnered another prestigious military honor in 2014 when he was awarded the George Catlett Marshall Medal, the highest award presented by the Association of the United States Army. The Marshall Medal is awarded annually to an individual, who has exhibited selfless service to the United States of America.

Krzyzewski has been named the USA Basketball Coach of the Year in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012. He was named recipient of the United States Sports Academy’s 2012 Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award after guiding Team USA to the gold medal in the London Olympics. Krzyzewski also received the Stagg Coaching Award in 1992 and 2009.

Coach K and USA Basketball

Krzyzewski has been a prominent figure on the USA Basketball scene throughout his career. On Oct. 26, 2005, his role on the international basketball world was thrust into the limelight when he was named head coach of the USA Basketball Men’s Senior National Team.

During his tenure at the helm of Team USA, the Men’s Senior National Team has amassed an extraordinary 75-1 record and has secured gold medals at the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2010 FIBA World Championship, 2012 London Olympics and 2014 FIBA World Cup as well as a bronze medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship.

Coach K helped USA Basketball regain its position in international basketball during his first stint as the national team coach (2005-08) by instilling the same team-first principles he utilizes as the foundation for success at Duke.

Player Quotes

Krzyzewski’s players know how special their coach, mentor and friend is.

“I played for the greatest college coach of all-time,” said Shane Battier, one of the most decorated players in the history of the game. “It was an amazing journey.”

Two-time National Player of the Year Jason Williams echoed Battier’s sentiments: “It’s a dream to play for a guy like that — a guy who’s just a rock, who believes in you every second you’re on the court. I love Coach K. I’d run through a brick wall for him.”

Standard of Excellence

Coach K’s 34 years at Duke have been driven by an unmatched standard of excellence. His Duke career includes:

Five National Championships (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015)

957 career wins (most in NCAA history)

884 victories at Duke, including 402 ACC wins

82 NCAA Tournament victories (first all-time)

12 National Coach of the Year honors (eight seasons)

Seven National Players of the Year (nine honors)

Six National Defensive Players of the Year (nine honors)

29 NCAA Tournament bids

27 All-America selections (41 honors)

11 Final Four appearances (T-2nd all-time)

12 ACC regular season championships

13 ACC Tournament championships

506 weeks ranked among the nation’s top 25 teams

445 weeks ranked among the nation’s top 10 teams

109 weeks ranked No. 1 in the country

45 NBA Draft selections, including 25 in the fi rst round

17 NBA Lottery picks

10 Consecutive Top 10 AP Poll finishes (1997-2006)

Commitment

When you are winning, your commitment is never challenged. But loyalty and dedication during difficult times can be tough. When commitment doesn’t waver, that’s when you have the greatest chance of winning. You can never give up.

- Coach K

Care

When you care about someone or something, you show genuine concern for that person or thing, in good times or bad. When you care about one another and about your purpose, you are compelled to put your feelings into action. Care creates an atmosphere that breeds success and gives you the confidence to try again.

- Coach K

Challenges

No matter how successful you believe yourself to be, you can never feel as if you’ve reached the absolute pinnacle. There are always new and wonderful challenges out there, and part of maintaining success is knowing when you need to accept them.

- Coach K

Belief

Belief can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try. On a team or in a family, belief makes each individual stronger and also fortifies the group as a whole. The basis of belief is in individual relationships.

- Coach K

Communication

Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication. Communication does not always occur naturally, and must be taught and practiced in order to bring everyone together as one. The most crucial element of communicating is telling the truth.

- Coach K

Collective Responsibility

We win and we lose together. Handling the responsibility for wins and losses together removes the burden from one individual’s shoulders and distributes it among each member of the team. That atmosphere is conducive to high-level performance and places you and your team in the position to be bold and unafraid, and if you should lose, you are not alone.

- Coach K

Courage

You can possess countless good qualities as an individual, but if you don”t have the courage to proceed, you may never see those qualities come into fruition. It takes courage to put what you believe to be best of you on the line, to test it, and to see how far it takes you. Courage means daring to do what you imagine.

- Coach K

Adaptability

You have to adapt what you do based on who you are. In teaching, you must remember that no group or individual is the same as who you taught the day before, the year before, or the decade before. Your plan has to suit who you and your team are right now.

- Coach K

Adversity

Adversity can teach you more about yourself than any success, and overcoming an obstacle can sometimes feel even better than achieving an easy victory. Through adversity, you can discover things about your endurance, your ability to turn a negative into a positive, and your personal strength of heart.

- Coach K

Balance

Take care not to allow one aspect of your life to so consume you that you neglect the others. Balance can put things in perspective, can bring you joy even when you are down, and can allow you to be at your best in all aspects of your life.